Death

A reader requested that I look at the chart of Bill Zeller, a brilliant programmer who was best known for creating innovative software such as the MyTunes application. Mr. Zeller committed suicide on January 5th after struggling for a lifetime with memories of repeated sexual abuse as a child.

It’s unfortunate that we don’t have a time of birth for Mr. Zeller, but the solar chart (born 10/26/1983 in Connecticut) reveals a stellium (tight conjunction) of four planets. His Sun and Saturn are tightly conjoined in Scorpio, suggesting a pattern of rejection and coldness (Saturn) from the father, and also a tendency towards depression, especially as a young person. (The beauty of Saturn is that if we can survive his trials as young people we can have a very productive old age.) A Scorpio Sun reveals an assignment to experience life as deeply as possible, including the dark emotions that lurk under every rock and within every crevice. There is a powerful emotional intensity with Scorpio that cannot be denied.

Also embedded in this stellium are Mercury and Scorpio in a nearly exact conjunction. Mercury is either at the last degree of Libra or fully into Scorpio, depending on when Zeller was born, and Pluto is at the last degree of Libra where it is fully “on the cusp” of Scorpio. Mercury represents the way we think about things, and with Mercury on the cusp of Scorpio and conjoined by Pluto we have a “double whammy” connecting Mercury–the mind– with Pluto/Scorpio’s intensity.

Mercury is also conjunct the Sun which bestows a high degree of intelligence on the individual, but traditional astrologers, calling this a “combust” aspect, suggest that Mr. Zeller’s capacity for reason would be diminished by […]

Corey Haim, the 1980s child star who made a career out of attempting a comeback, died the other night from what coroners say was an enlarged heart and fluid in the lungs. Haim had a long history of drug addiction and was apparently admitted to rehab on fifteen different occasions, but it wasn’t drugs that killed him, at least not directly, but the devastation of 20 years of drug abuse had already taken their toll.

Haim had the Sun in achievement-oriented Capricorn, in a nearly exact square (challenging aspect) to Pluto, planet of death and renewal. With the Sun in Capricorn his desire for success and to make a mark on the world was a driving force in his life, but he also had Jupiter, the planet of good luck and optimism, in its own sign of Sagittarius where it is particularly powerful. Jupiter in Sagittarius is the party boy – the Fool in the Tarot deck that operates through blind faith, ready to step off a cliff because he is looking at the sky, but nearly always landing on his feet. His Mercury was in Sagittarius as well, suggesting that there was a big part of him that didn’t want to be serious or focus on the future, in spite of the Capricorn Sun.

That Sun/Pluto square nearly always signifies great potential, such as in the charts of Jon Stewart, Maya Angelou, Sally Field and Barbra Streisand; but it can also signify great tragedy and self-destruction, such as Tiger Woods, Mark David Chapman (John Lennon’s murderer), and occasionally have a transformative effect on the world for good or for evil, such as L Ron Hubbard (founder of Scientology). The intense pressure that Pluto puts on the Sun […]

. Andrew Koenig, the son of Walter Koenig who played Pavel Chekov in the original Star Trek series, has been missing since February 14th. He was last seen at a bakery in Vancouver. Koenig is an actor who is best known as Kirk Cameron’s sidekick in the long-running television series “Growing Pains.” Some of Koenig’s friends fear the worst, reporting that he had been depressed and fed up with his life in California. He sold all of his possessions and walked away from his home in Venice on February 4.

Koenig (8/17/1968, time unknown, LA CA) is 41, the age at which transiting Uranus opposes Uranus in the birthchart, and because he is one of those “Uranus/Pluto” people who were born between 1962 and 1968, that Uranus opposition is particularly intense. Briefly, Uranus is the planet of rebellion and revolutionary change, and Pluto, the planet of death and rebirth, presides over experiences that transform us from the ground up. This cohort of people carry this archetype of revolutionary change within them.

The Uranus Opposition is a planetary cycle in which Uranus in the sky opposes Uranus in the birthchart. It occurs at age 40-42, and is the most intense of the “midlife crisis” transits, generating an urge to break free of whatever is holding us back. For this age group, because Uranus opposes not only natal Uranus but also natal Pluto, this time period is even more urgent and powerful and necessitates a letting go of the past in order to move forward into the future.

Pluto squares his Moon, or his emotions, and Andrew’s former landlordthat Andrew did not have a good relationship with his mother (the Moon often, but […]

Representative John Murtha of Pennsylvania, who was one of the more outspoken critics of the Iraq War, died yesterday from complications of gallbladder surgery. I profiled him back in 2005 .

Murtha had a nearly exact conjunction of Mars (aggression and war) to Chiron (wounding and healing), and transiting Chiron was activating that conjunction nearly exactly at the time of his illness and surgery.

Although he voted in 2002 to approve the war, in 2005 he said “The war in Iraq is not going as advertised. It is a flawed policy wrapped in illusion” and called for an immediate pullout of the troops.

He was a tireless advocate for the military as reflected in that Mars/Chiron conjunction. Chiron is known as the “wounded healer” and shows what areas in life we experience wounds, and where we seek to become healed ourselves and heal others. For Murtha, the military was his world and the focus of his dedication and to the end he insisted that the current conflicts could not be solved militarily. It’s too bad no one is listening.

Ted Kennedy died last night of brain cancer at the age of 77. He was a controversial figure in many ways, but there is no denying that he was a tireless champion for the rights of those less fortunate than he. He is also the last of the iconic Kennedy political family that wielded political influence in the United States for fifty years.

Kennedy was a man with great compassion, as we can see with the Sun in sensitive Pisces opposed by Neptune, ruler of Pisces, and the Moon. Neptune and Pisces seek an experience of Universal Bliss and are associated with spirituality and spiritual compassion, but also with a desire to escape the boundaries of ordinary reality. A propensity towards alcoholism and other addictions are frequently seen in a strong Pisces nature, and Kennedy was no exception.

Still, the extreme empathy that is bestowed by Neptune and Pisces combined in Kennedy’s chart with a Capricorn ascendant that gave him the ability to focus and work diligently to accomplish his goals. A combination of Mars (drive) and Mercury (communication) in Aquarius, the sign of new ideas and social justice, propelled him ever forwards to design new ways of creating greater balance in the American economic system.

Senator Kennedy was diagnosed with brain cancer last May, as transiting Chiron made the first swipe of a square to his natal Chiron. Chiron is the planet(oid, some say) that presides over the body/mind/spirit balance of an individual and is therefore often present when there is illness of some kind. The first phase of the Chiron square cycle occurred in March, but Kennedy was not hospitalized until May when the Full Moon hit a sensitive Mars/Mercury conjunction in his chart.

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lokasiwisata.info has been a practicing astrological consultant in beautiful North Carolina for over 30 years, working with clients all over the world both in person and by phone. She focuses on therapeutic and healing approaches which encourage greater empowerment and personal growth. She is available for personal consultations.

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Mercury retrograde in 2019

When Mercury is retrograde we often see communication and equipment snafus, and things not going according to plan. There is a "shadow" period lasting about a week on either side when Mercury's movement is slower than normal. These are excellent times for planning and reflection but not good times to begin something new.